Dinner and a book is supported by the Rex and Alice A. Martin Foundation of Elkhart.

Celebrating the Spirit of Alice Martin and her love of good food and good friends.

American writer, syndicated newspaper columnist and playwright George Ade used street language and slang to describe daily life in Indiana and at his job in Chicago.

Ade's Fables and Slang gained him wealth and fame as an American humorist.

Purdue's Ross- Ade Stadium is partially named after him.

So let's meet my guest, Bill Firstenberger to learn more about this Indiana writer.

Welcome.

Welcome--I'm back.

Thank you for having me back, Gail.

Did I come appropriately dressed in in Purdue garb today?

You did.

And you even have a little R for Ross, Ross-Ade.

Yes, that's what that's for.

Well, this this is we're continuing in this line of American writers.

Indiana writers.

Indiana authors.

Yes.

Indiana's known as the author state for so many years and so many generations.

And so we thought it'd be a great idea on Dinner and a Book to sort of trace them over the years.

And we're we've done quite a few, but we have a few more to go.

I hope so.

We're going to be looking for additional writers.

Well, we want to talk about George Ade and his history of writing fables.

And we want to talk also about the food we're going to make today.

And I'm going to just start by saying I'm making very simple Hoosier food.

We're going to have a creamed corn pudding.

And a pudding, meaning, you know, a creamed corn.

And I'm--I'm adding jif and I'm adding butter.

And we're going to have a nice it's a tasty dish for all kinds of festivities.

And then I'm going to do a bourbon glazed ham.

And you are going to do what?

I am making stuffed mangoes.

But it should be mentioned that we took the menu for today out of the book.

It was in one of the fables.

They--they crammed all of these foods into just one story.

There isn't a whole lot of food in the book, but luckily we had this banquet in one story and so we had a lot of choices.

And so it's interesting to note that a hundred plus years ago, when somebody referred to a stuffed mango, they were probably referring to a stuffed green pepper, like we call it today.

I was wondering about the time of mangoes in the early 1900s.

That's right.

And there are still areas in West Virginia and Pennsylvania today and other areas of the country that still call stuffed peppers, stuffed mangoes.

But, you know, me and my desire to always, you know, challenge myself with messy types of foods here on Dinner and a Book.

And I don't know of too many messier foods than.

You're brave, you're brave.

A mango.

So we're going to try this out and see how it goes.

Well, you just take a minute here to let me get this corn pudding--.

You go right ahead.

Put together.

We are going to put some cream, corn and a can of drained regular corn, a stick of butter and sour cream, a cup of sour cream.

And that adds a real creaminess and makes it sort of like a pudding.

This goes into the oven after you have it stirred up for about forty minutes or until it's bubbling and not--no longer wobbly in the center.

So we'll keep our eye on that.

Okay.

Back to your mangos.

Back to my stuffed mango.

What I've done is I've cut a line all the way around.

I guess you call it the long ways of the mango, because if you've ever opened a mango before, there's a very large seed inside and it's kind of flat and long and narrow.

And we were trying to create two halves.

And it's daunting, isn't it?

And here we go.

So now I've created the line and I'm going to try to carve out around this seed without seeing what I'm doing.

Well, you know, it's in the center.

That's all you know.

I know it's in there.

It's in there, right?

I think it's hard going to get those seeds out.

We're going to get it.

Once you get the first half out, the second half should be a little easier.

It should be.

That's the word.

It should be.

In theory.

And I'm also trying to do this without puncturing th-- the outer skin.

Here we go, Gail.

I think our big moment.

Ta-dah!

Hey, very nice.

Very nice.

Thank you.

We did it with patience and precision.

I'm going to turn my water down a little bit.

We're going to be using the stuff mangoes.

What we're going to stuff the mangoes with is just some five minute rice.

But first, I need to carve out much of this mango flesh, the fruit and we're going to use that.

While you're carving, I'm going to slip this corn pudding into the oven and keep my eye on the time.

There.

Actually, I'm going to get the rest of that seat out from the other side first, and then I'm going to come back and get some of the--the mango flesh.

How many mangoes did you operate on before you came to practice getting the seed?

That is a trade secret.

Oh.

I'm not going to divulge how many--how many I had to butcher before--.

You like to live dangerously.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Well, we were talking about the Indiana writers and some have endured through time as excellent writers like Theodore Dreiser, Booth Tarkington, Kurt Vonnegut has had another wave of celebrity.

But tell us about George.

I mean, George had--he carved out a unique-- yeah.

Yeah.

We don't think of him as much as we think of some of the other classic--, by the way, so there we go.

We got the seed out and I am going to take that--.

Bravo.

And put it right into my water and get the heat turned up again to let it cook a little bit and--and take some of the juice and--.

And so you're going to use the juice?

Flavor out of there.

You are.

Yes, absolutely.

Good.

Yeah, that looks wonderful.

I had never seen that done.

I thought of that myself.

Well, you're going to go down in history.

Oh, here we go.

Yeah, but back to George Ade.

So--so he is an American humorist, kind of in the Mark Twain tradition.

Will Rogers may be also in that same group, but they don't take themselves too seriously, you know.

Well, the way he writes, he just slips off these very funny fables.

And it's used in a sort of a country vernacular.

It's--slang is the vernacular.

These country folks moved into the cities at the time, you know, the beginning of the 1900s.

And they--they brought this language along with them.

And he uses this--this slang he calls it.

And it is funny.

There are some expressions that he uses over and over, like 'good and plenty'.

'I did that job good and plenty'.

And we've got fables on all kinds of characters and instances.

I'm going to slip my ham in here and let it warm a little bit.

Well, he was known as Indiana's Aesop, remember?

That was kind of his nickname.

We've all heard of Aesop's Fables.

And of course, what makes a fable a fable is that it's a concise, short story, but then it has a moral at the end.

And without the moral, I don't know if you could consider it a fable.

Probably not a fable.

And some of these--these morals are just hilarious.

I mean, and he does put people down.

He--in a way, he laughs at people, but he's laughing at himself, too, because he was born in a small town in Indiana and he died in a small town in Indiana.

And he only left to work as a as a writer in Chicago for some time.

But then he came back and stayed in Indiana, very well-educated at Purdue.

And he was, you know, Sigma Chi.

And he--he helped raise money for the university--.

He was really very well known.

A huge supporter of Purdue University and his entire life and the fraternity Sigma Chi.

And really, you know, he became, for his time an incredibly wealthy author.

Oh, you know, we think of starving writer.

Starving artists sometimes.

Not George Ade.

He was nationally syndicated in 1900 and made a great living for himself, bought lots of land.

And yes, with his friend David Ross, they purchased land on the side of the existing Purdue University, donated it to the university, and then donated more money to build Ross-Ade Stadium.

So well, I make I just want to mention that I'm making my glasses here and at some point I will pull the ham out and brush it again on--on the ham and let it bake.

I You can use cloves.

I've just added some mustard, brown sugar and a little bit of whiskey to give it a little kick.

And it will bake.

I just wanted to show, too, the--with the mango pit in there with the flesh.

Now you can see the water has taken on some of the juice and some of that flavor and I've taken it off the heat.

And so now I'm just going to make a regular serving of rice.

You're going to do what kind of rice?

It's--It's Jasmine minute rice.

I love it.

You know, we have just about a minute here until we're going to go to our next segment.

But I do want to mention one of these fables.

It's called The Fable of the Good Fairy with the Lorgnette and why she got it good.

And this is about a lady who decides she has no children.

She gets bored taking care of her husband.

So she thinks 'I'll--I will become benevolent'.

So she--when she switches her current out of the enthusiasm, the whole neighborhood has to put on blinders.

She takes on this idea of being benevolent.

It's amazing.

And she is--she lets the little children look at her rings.

And she--her clothes are full of pinholes where she's been hanging metals on herself.

And she used to go to a handball court every day and throw up bouquets, letting them bounce back down and hit her.

I mean, she had everything planned to give her great recognition.

So it's a story, you know, making fun of a certain type, a certain group.

And we'll get back to that in just a minute.

But right now, we're going to take a little break.

We want to show you the menu today.

We'll be right back.

And we're back and we're talking about George Ade's Fables and Slang.

And you're putting some finishing touches on your stuffed--.

Mango.

Mango.

And I'm going to glaze the ham and I'm going to put it back in the oven.

You were nice enough to give me a couple of slices off your ham, which is wonderful.

And so I'm just putting the chopped pieces of the ham and the mango in with the rice.

We're going to add a little dash of some season salt.

Use your favorite one that you like.

And to add a little sweetness, I'm going to just a little swirl of maple syrup.

And I'm putting my ham back in the oven, checking on the corn pudding.

And there we go.

I think, you know, in some ways, I would think that would be a great salad.

You wouldn't have to stuff a mango.

No, you wouldn't have to.

But you already have it.

Yes, I know.

And then you don't want to mix it up too much, or you might kind of make--.

You'll mush it up.

Mush the mangoes all up.

So I'm ready to just scoop them right out.

You do it.

And so--George Ade.

And, you know, I was just laughing at some of these these words he uses.

You've just got to get.

Well, there's a preacher that that looks out on his congregation and they're falling asleep and he says, 'I have to do something to get them excited'.

And he--he's got to fix up his sermons good and plenty.

That's another George Ade.

So he finds some really distant writers, philosophers, and he throws them into his sermon.

And the people are wide eyed and they think, 'Oh, we're getting what we paid for here.

This is--'.

And another one, you know, third act is another philosopher.

And he's looking at his congregation and they're--they're so excited.

They don't understand a word he's saying.

And--but the parishioners are so happy.

The only thing is they worry now that maybe he'll be drawn away to another church.

So the moral of this is give the people what they think they want.

They don't understand the sermons at all, but they're so intellectual.

The people think, 'Oh, I have a new outlook on life'.

Morals are like the punch lines, you know?

It really is.

And these stories are all, you know, four or five at most six pages long.

And you can read them in about three or four minutes.

And that's what was so appealing, I think, to people.

And he became so famous.

He became so successful.

Anyway, I--in getting back to our do gooder, our benefactor, she says, 'Now I'm going to carry sunshine to the lonely places and the lonely places.

So, you know, she's wandering around in the tenements and she just--she goes to the house and she says, 'Does your father drink?'

And she says, 'Well, tell your dad he should drink a claret for dinner and nothing more.'.

Of course these people don't even know what a claret is.

Speaking of the lowly places and--and, you know, wetting our whistle.

We're going to wet our whistle?

We're going to do something in true Purdue tradition.

Oh, my Gosh.

And we're going to fix ourselves--.

I love tradition.

Boilermakers.

What else, right?

Has to be.

I thought I never knew this was a drink.

I really didn't.

See I learned something.

Well, you know, that doesn't surprise me, Gail.

You are a lady of refined tastes.

Oh yes, just like that benevolent lady.

And so, let's see.

What did you say-- you wanted Canadian hard whiskey?

Sure.

Let's celebrate our neighbors to the north.

Absolutely.

But only a half a shot.

Okay, that's fine.

So this--there are two ways, two acceptable ways, to have a boilermaker.

Oh, gosh, I'm going to try something different just to be different.

While--While you're doing that, you--?

Do the bourbon.

I think to go with your bourbon ham.

Would you serve this as a main dish?

A side dish?

I think it's a side dish.

But, you know, some people, if it has protein, it has carbs, it has--.

It's nice.

You put in a little bit of cilantro on top.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I'm going to have--I'm going to have the other version of a boilermaker.

That's--that is where you just drop the glass right in your beer.

Okay.

And so we will do this.

We will do this first.

But the Purdue tradition, boiler up.

Hammer down, is that it?

There you go.

You may start.

And here we go.

This is worthy of a fable.

That's as far as I can go.

Oh, I feel quite healthy, though.

Oh, absolutely.

Well, boilermakers, I wouldn't say are known for their taste.

Oh, now you tell me?

It's more about the effects of, you know, the celebration.

You know, it really changes the taste of beer.

Oh, it does.

Try mixing it this way.

Yeah.

Well, to old Purdue.

Yes.

Boiler up.

Yes.

Oh, now back to George Ade.

Oh, yes.

Now back to the literary aspect.

Well, I found his descriptions charming.

If he's making fun of poor people, he's also making fun of rich people like this benevolent lady.

Or himself, too.

Yeah.

We've met benevolent ladies and benevolent gentlemen.

And did you have a favorite?

Well, you know, the one that--the one that I used was, by the way, I should grab--grab my historic early edition copy of Fables and Slang Recall.

This is my shtick and dinner and a book is that I like to read copies.

You like to wear white gloves?

I like to-- yes, you can see me at my chair in my home reading in a white--with white gloves.

The title of mine is The Fable of the Unintentional Heroes of Centerville, and it's these two young guys who went off to the Spanish-American War, and they were--didn't really do much when they were there, but they came back from the war, came off the train.

A band starts playing the D.A.R.

Ladies Society welcomes them with a grand ovation.

They whisk them off to this huge banquet dinner and all this.

And when it's all over with, they ask themselves, you know, are we heroes?

Did we really do anything?

And the moral of the story is, if it is your play to be a hero, don't renege.

Do it well.

Do it and do it well.

But the other thing that was really amazing about--about when you look at an old book and sometimes you get a surprise.

And I got a surprise when I bought this book, Gail, because it had what's referred to as an illumination, and I'm not sure how well the camera can get there.

So this--so that page started as black and white, but the owner, you can see they they added their name and their little signature there.

They kind of used it like a coloring book and filled in all the lines.

People do--.

I think people did do that it you need its things to do this enjoy yourself, you know?.

Illumination, yes.

There are wonderful illustrations throughout this book.

That's the only one that they actually illuminated.

But that was a great bonus when I bought this book.

You never know what you're going to find.

You know, you've got a collection and you really do.

And just give me a moment here.

I want to talk again.

She goes to visit this, these ignorant people, as she says, down in the tenement area.

And the mother said, 'Well, he's afraid of you.

Kindly explain to him that I take an interest in him, even though he is the offspring of an obscure and ignorant working man'.

'Well, I am probably the grandest thing that ever swept up the boulevard.

Next time I come, I hope to hear that your husband has stopped drinking and is very happy.

Tell the small person under the bed that if he learns to spell ibex, by the time I call again, I will let him look at my ring'.

How's that?

How's that?

George, you know, he makes fun of everybody, and the--the language is clever, isn't it?

Oh, my.

Yeah, yeah.

And he had this idiosyncratic habit of capitalizing words in--in the middle of the sentence just because he sort of wanted to highlight that word.

And that was a big thing with him.

And so all through Fables and Slang, you'll see that.

And it really does.

I mean, if you kind of just go with it and you think, 'why is that word capitalized?

', then you'll be you know, you'll be distracted.

But if you--.

You'll miss the humor.

If you just go with it, it's really very entertaining to read.

Well, you know, he also fed on this idea.

It was particularly a Midwestern thing.

But I'm going to ask you if it happened all over America, people in certain areas were a bit leery of poets, reformers, saints.

They didn't care for eccentricity, snobbishness and affectation.

So he is puncturing a lot of balloons and he's setting all these people up.

And not only the swells, but the, you know, ne'er do wells.

But it is hilarious.

And think of the time too.

He was born in 1866, died in 1944.

So right at the end of the Civil War, after the Civil War is over, he's born, a young child, but he dies during World War Two.

So that's the cusp of his influence in America is right when we're going from a rural agrarian society to an urban society.

And he is able to walk in both of those worlds and speak about the common people and for the common people.

And yes, he does make fun of everybody.

Everybody.

And I'm getting a sign that we should be thinking about the next segment.

So we're going to show you some pictures of George Ade, a very handsome man, and we'll come right back.

We're inviting you to dinner, come to our modest but elegant Hoosier meal.

We'll be right back.

Well, I enjoyed George Ade's Fables and Slang.

Thank you for suggesting it.

Oh, my pleasure.

I mean, it was a great book.

It was a book, of course, in its times.

And you had to accept it that way.

But I mean, what a great humorist or what a great, great sense of humor he had.

He really did.

He really did.

And we just want to go over what we prepared, a kind of a Hoosier meal, Indiana meal.

So tell us about your--.

My stuffed mangoes there with the mango rinds and then jasmine rice with a little bit of your ham.

Thank you for that.

And so that's a nice side dish.

What did you prepare?

Well, I--I just wanted to tell you, I'm impressed with this, and I may steal it and put it in my repertoire.

I think so.

Oh, I hope so.High praise.

Yeah.

Well, I made the corn pudding that is so easy to put together.

In fact, I was reading the recipe, and it sounds like it was written by George Ade.

It says--this person says 'this stupid, easy cream corn casserole recipe is made with a store bought Jiffy Cornbread mix.

And that's not an apology'.

I mean, here I am reading this must be George.

Right.

It's sounds like he wrote it.

Yes.

Well, and then we have our ham.

I have a glazed ham with mustard, brown sugar and bourbon.

And a little side here of Norwegian lingonberry to serve.

And of course, we've got this magnificent drink.

We have our boilermakers.

Should we have one more boiler up?

Hammer down.

Or is it handle?

You haven't got to hammer down.

Got it.

Yes.

So I did enjoy--I did enjoy the book.

Thanks for suggesting George Ade.

You're very welcome.

And, you know, we enjoyed having you.

Remember good food, good friends, good books, really make for an excellent life.

We'll see you next time.

Cheers to old Purdue.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Dinner and a book is supported by the Rex and the Alice, a martin Foundation of Elkhart celebrating the Spirit of Alice Martin and her love of good food and good friends.